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Dantes929

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Everything posted by Dantes929

  1. Dantes929
    We recently faced a team with a lot of lefties. That would have made more sense for HIcks to come up. I know his splits are better from the left side than what they were but I would still like him to come up facing lefties to start with and get his confidence up a bit. Personally, I would have liked a platoon of sorts among Robsinson, Rosario and Hicks. and send Schaefer or Nunez down.
  2. Dantes929
    Santana gets a pass from me. Yes, his routine play errors are annoying but you really need to net those out against his fantastic plays. Maybe that still leaves us with below average but not so below average. I have knocked Plouffe's supposed improvement at third base defense but am becoming a believer. He has gotten to more balls that I didn't think he would already this season than I have seen his entire career. Infield defense overall is still solid. While left field has been as bad as ever in left I do think Hunter plays right much better than Arcia did. Pelfrey gets a bit of a pass for blowing up yesterday. Long first half of the inning and one of his hit batters with 0-2 count just leaned in and moved his elbow so it would hit the pad. I thought it was pretty blatant.
  3. Dantes929
    Remember 2011 and 2012 when we were promoting guys to the Twins with minor league ERA's north of 4, or even 5? I look forward to seeing Hu pitch with the Twins as much as I do Meyer or Berrios.
  4. Dantes929
    The things that went right mostly came later in the season with Santana and Vargas. What has gone right this year is Mauer, Plouffe, Milone, Pelfrey and Gibson. Last year Florimon and Nolasco were going very wrong. I am quite certain without being able to prove it that the Twins would have the same results give OR take a win under Gardy. What has Molitor done that has turned things around? Nothing has changed my own opinion that managers are overrated. I believe hitting and pitching coaches have more effect.
  5. Dantes929
    What's cool is that his base running last night won the game.
  6. Dantes929
    Satntana started slow and has been picking it up. Vargas started ok and has been in a downward spiral. Last year I was impressed with Vargas willingness to hit where the ball was thrown and that he wasn't over swinging. I believe that home run derby stuff can mess up a swing. Vargas like Arcia do not need to swig their hardest to hit the ball out. Problem with the young guys being in slumps is that they appear to think they can make up for it al with one home run. Reminds me of taking my 9 year old son and his friend out to the driving range. My son would just grip it and rip it while his friend was really working on his form and did not square up a single ball. My son was swinging wilder and wilder and was soon not hitting anything well either. The next day we went again and my son kept flailing at the ball while his friend started hitting good shot after good shot. It really is about the process rather than the results. Take care of the little things with good at bats and the results will take care of itself
  7. Dantes929
    Funny. I always liked him until he threw out Cuddyer in game 163. To me Griffey Jr was to baseball as Payne Stewart was to golf. They both had the sweetest swings imaginable. I might be dating myself also but I really enjoyed watching Sid Finch, Roy Hobbs, Bingo Long, Chip Hilton, and Casey.
  8. Dantes929
    I'm not big on political correctness and I can handle the slam to Milone though I believe he deserves a bit more credit also but its disrespectful and demeaning to those that have participated in the Special Olympics. If you had a child that participates you might feel differently. People lump everyone that has an upper 80's fastball together as incapable of succeeding in the major leagues but in fact there are thousands of such pitchers and not all of them are capable of a career ERA under 4.03 over 86 starts in the American League. In fact not other pitcher on the staff all of whom throw several mph faster have a career ERA under 4.32. Nolasco's is over 4.5 in the NL.
  9. Dantes929
    I don't make predictions like that but if I did, no way would I give up on 2015. I truly believe that May and Gibson are the real deal. Pelfrey has certainly looked great and Santana should help, eventually. I think every hitter with the possible exception of Mauer and Plouffe can do better. Take 3 of 4 from Chicago and things will look better.
  10. Dantes929
    Don't know if it was updated or not but I checked and his LH split was .700 OPS. and his right handed were over 1.00. I've said before but his stats all along have shown that he does jus fine from the right side. His readiness for the Bigs should be based on how he does from the left side.
  11. Dantes929
    lol, You mean he becomes a borderline HOFer.? I have never heard anyone anywhere say Mauer can't catch up to a good fast ball.
  12. Dantes929
    Proven winner? We won more game after he left than we did his last season here. If you want to talk about proven winners then you would probably be better off talking about LNP. I would prefer the 25 year old fast athletic Hunter before he "proved" anything. I didn't love this signing and the only way I could defend it was by saying he was a better defensive outfielder than Willingham. That is NOT to say I think he is a good defensive outfielder but I still believe he is better than Josh was that final year. Willingham also gave us very little offensively last year and I am hoping this 20 game stretch is just a slump rather than a drained battery.
  13. Dantes929
    I saw a routine ground ball go between the legs of last year's GG winner. Not exactly Brook Robinson competition there. I think I could win a GG but don't think my .0033 BA would play so well there. I used to dislike Plouffe offensively and defensively but now like him for both so I give him a lot of credit.
  14. Dantes929
    Without looking up Trout and Cabrerra's spray charts I will agree with you, at least in terms of home run power. Mauer has a 162 game average of a combination of 54 extra base hits and has always tended to hit to the opposite field. His power year was at the dome and most of those cleared by about 2 feet and mostly to left of center. He has been pulling the ball this year and through 18 games has zero homers. Of course that can all change but I have always said I would be fine with the .320 average and 50 doubles and don't care if he ever hits another homer. I am not anti pull. I am anti swinging too hard, stepping in the bucket and trying to pull low and away pitches. Mauer is stronger than last year , is still balanced and doesn't appear to be swinging too hard. If he pulls it, goes up the middle or opposite field it doesn't matter as long as he hits it hard. For some reason people think last year was the way he always hit and that the shift was his undoing. its simply not true. Last year was not the way he hit during his batting title years.
  15. Dantes929
    This is just my opinion but I don't think last year was a case of defenses "solving" him. They put the shifts on and pitched him on the outside corner which most years would have been ideal for him because he always squared those pitches up at a very high rate, shift or no shift. Last year in the first half he tried to pull those pitches which resulted in a lot of weak grounders to the right side. 2nd half he hit it harder even though into the shift with much better results. Now it does look like he changed his mechanics slightly but it also looks like he is much stronger. I am fine with him pulling the ball more, I just don't think he needs to. I think the concussion was the biggest factor last year. I don't think it matters where he hits it as long as he is back to squaring it up at a high rate. That is what makes him special.
  16. Dantes929
    Looks like 12.3% is his wheelhouse. When the right fielder is playing in right center and the center fielder is playing in left center and he hits a triple into center field does that count as pulling the ball since it went between the center fielder and right fielder?
  17. Dantes929
    There were definitely some balls that could have been called strikes in the 1st inning. What I really like about May so far is that his pitches that are called balls are pretty close to the zone. Last year his waste pitches weren't even close. Too bad about the injury. Very rare for something like this happening to a Twin and then it being no big deal. Hope this is the time.
  18. Dantes929
    We may be putting the cart before the horse here. If Nolasco has two more rehab starts then that probably means everyone else gets two more starts before then as well. What are the odds we get 8 quality starts in a row out of Milone, Pelfrey, May and Gibson. I absolutely agree about May and Gibson and wonder why anyone is down on Gibson. What I don't understand is any love of Nolasco. He has done nothing for us and does not really have such a great track record before coming here. If the rotation is still pitching well then you just leave it alone until there is an opening.
  19. Dantes929
    If it is a bunt in the 9th of a perfect game and your team is down by more than 4 that might be considered rude. If it is the 9th inning of a perfect game and you are down by 3 or less and you think bunting is the best way to get on base but you don't do it out of respect for the other team's pitcher you should be fined and traded in that order. Just my opinion.
  20. Dantes929
    I would have been quite happy if it had turned out to be a Hughes, Santana, Gibson, May and Meyer rotation but give credit where it is due. Pelfrey shut out a very hot KC team. I love that he is throwing his fastball harder but less often. Most pitcher get a couple extra ticks on their fastball they will throw it more often so props to Pelfrey for using it more effectively. I always thought he had at least as much stuff as Nolasco so I am not anxious to see Nolasco back at all. As well as Pelfrey pitched I thought Milone might have been even better the night beore.. Unfortunately, he appeared to be the victim f a very slightly shrunken strike zone and very patient KC hitters. Even with that he did ok.
  21. Dantes929
    I will never criticize a team for not liking the White Sox.
  22. Dantes929
    Vargas batting .191 Guthrie with a slow windup plus he looks at the ground while doing so. I suggested that if he were safe or a balk was called it would alter peoples opinion so I liked your spin on pondering if it was another player whether or not it would affect anyone's opinion. I can promise you that even if it was everyone's whipping boy Arcia I would have supported the play. The runner studied the pitcher and thought he had a good chance. You can see how startled and awkward Guthrie was. He was lucky he threw low and lucky the catcher scooped the ball and probably lucky Hunter didn't hook slide to the inside of the plate. IMO, it had a much better chance of success than 50%. Maybe if Robinson or Schaefer is batting he checks the runner. Only way it could have been a better chance is if Guthrie was a lefty so maybe he doesn't notice Hunter running.
  23. Dantes929
    Rules and interpretations have been covered pretty well . As a practical matter if Guthrie had been forced to pitch at his normal pace Hunter could have scored and cleared the batting area in time for Vargas to settle in for the pitch. Slightly off topic but I thought it was a fantastic play by Hunter. Guthrie's delivery was very slow with his head down. Most of the time Hunter would have scored with a pitcher that disrupted. I wonder how many would have said it was a questionable decision if he had been safe.
  24. Dantes929
    Why are we talking about Hrbek. Very good player but why would anyone pick him over Mauer or Morneau? People forget how good Mauer was before 2011. 6 time all star and 4 time top 10 MVP. Hrbek finished there once. Mauer's OPS and OPS+ are better. If Mauer already accomplished all these things why wait until his career is over. Mauer also has the Gold Gloves though I will say Hrbek was robbed more in that category than ROY in my opinion. Morneau also has an MVP and 2nd place MVP to his credit and was having the best year of his career and was probably a shoe in for another MVP when he got concussed. Santana, Mauer, Morneau, Oliva, Blyleven, Killebrew and Carew over Hrbek. That's no insult.
  25. Dantes929
    I know I beat a dead horse with this but he is tearing it up as a right handed batter vs left handed pitcher with a 1.090 OPS in 10 games. .713 as a left handed hitter in 12 games. Not horrible but doesn't he need to bat better than .267 as a minor leaguer from that side?
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